Here we go again!

I really dislike starting on the wrong foot with the newly-elected Labour Party deputy leader for parliamentary affairs. Generally, I try giving a person the benefit of the doubt but when something upsets me I just cannot resist speaking out.

My impression of Charles Mangion has been, to date, rather positive and I am hoping that, apart from the recent hiccup, this interpretation of mine will continue to find reinforcement through action rather than words. Only time will tell.

In last Thursday's interview in The Times, the Labour deputy leader was asked many straightforward questions. True to a politician's form, he gracefully slipped through most of the uncomfortable ones but when he was cornered with the burning question: "So, to cut a long story short, don't you have any regrets over the way the MLP handled the referendum outcome?" surprise of surprises, the interviewee chose a categorical "No".

This sweeping denial, displaying a clear lack of repentance, led me to wonder. If Dr Mangion has absolutely no regrets, what has really changed in the Malta Labour Party? Is it simply cosmetic?

He urged the media "to be fair and to differentiate between fact and opinion". Perhaps he should practise what he preaches. Does he really believe that the dead, the bedridden, those voters who were struck off the register, as well as those who were studying, working or offering their sterling voluntary services overseas were to be included in the warped equation the MLP adopted to calculate the referendum outcome? Hmmmm!

I, too, agree that the media, as well as any other citizen for that matter, should differentiate between fact and opinion. In an interview, in this very paper, carried a month before the referendum, George Vella, an MLP ex-deputy leader and predecessor of Dr Mangion, had stated unequivocally that the MLP would be calculating the result on a voter turnout which normally reaches 95 per cent.

If one were to adopt Dr Vella's reasoning, the IVA vote won by 50.7 per cent. But I guess that was just Dr Vella's opinion because Dr Mangion still insists it was 48 per cent.

Well, let us do away with these differing opinions and face some pure and simple facts. The voter turnout was 92.5 per cent. Invalid votes cast totalled 1.4 per cent. Bottom line: the ayes registered 53.7 per cent and the nays registered 46.3 per cent. A quick translation for the less mathematical: there were 19,300 more voters who voted yes than those who voted no! Facts are facts and although this happens to be an "opinion" page I have strictly adhered to the Electoral Commission's official results! Our law, to boot, also happens to stipulate that this is the methodology to be used to interpret referenda results.

Neither should the result of the referendum have been conveniently swept under the carpet because the desired result was not achieved. A "consultative" referendum is an internationally used effective democratic tool.

The protagonists, for a change, are the people and not the politicians. Their opinion, freely given, is what really matters and the outcome, positive or negative, must be respected by all and sundry.

Dr Mangion declared that the MLP "consistently maintained that the general election would decide the issue". Who gave it the right to even consider such nonsense? Ironically, in the same breath, he announced, "as a political party we have no problem respecting the will of the people"! I should jolly well hope so!

To be fair, the interviewee did not evade all the questions posed. He was bold enough to agree with the interviewer's statement that the MLP took five years to accept VAT from 1998 to 2003. He admitted that it "was a mistake not to take a position from day one by saying that VAT is no longer an issue" adding "with hindsight, we should have dealt with this issue before".

Dr Mangion is under the illusion that the MLP "is managing to win back" its credibility. My advice, which will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears, is... learn from the past.

You are still worlds apart! Please, do not just "make the best out of" the European Union membership, your words Dr Mangion, but "give it your best"!

Cut the umbilical cord. Turn over a new leaf. Change your mentality.